We saw market growth potential by adding hobbing ability for small-diameter parts and for long-shaft hobbing, meaning parts over 500 mm long,” said Terry Roach, sales manager for Gear Master, recalling the challenge for the job shop’s growth in 2019. As all job shops consider expanding capabilities, Gear Master’s next step for growth appeared to be in smaller parts and longer parts, and the company found an ideal solution that solved both needs. This machine, a Helios Hera 90-W horizontal CNC gear hobbing machine, provided a complete installed package within a few months: ability to hob small diameter parts, capacity for part lengths up to 600 mm, high-speed carbide hobbing, domestic support in the Midwest, and a price that ensured a profitable platform for the future.
Gear Master, Inc., specializes in precision gear and spline manufacturing with the expertise and equipment to prove it. Since its start in 1997, the company has built a wide range of CNC machining capabilities that include dedicated grinding and hobbing platforms. Gear Master serves the aerospace, defense, medical, and industrial sectors with work for flagship programs such as the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, the Lockheed Martin C-130, JASSM Missile, a Stryker surgical drill, various Caterpillar and Allison Transmission projects, and electric vehicles. The following applications showcase how the new Hera 90-W from Helios Gear Products has improved Gear Master’s ability to serve its customers.
A 32 DP, 26-tooth, 303 stainless steel, spur gear requires AGMA Q9 quality. This part—thousands used monthly in a surgical device—requires highly productive hobbing to be profitable for a job shop. This was a challenge before because a mid-twentieth-century hobber limited the application to only 2 pieces per cycle due to the machine’s lack of rigidity. Today, Gear Master manufactures these parts 4 pieces per cycle, using high-speed hobbing on the Hera 90-W. Consequently, the shop’s productivity has greatly increased measured as parts produced per machine-hour.
Not only does the new machine deliver success, but Gear Master has found Helios to be a reliable partner to support demanding opportunities. For example, to satisfy a quick-delivery Dana Corp. prototype job for the electric vehicle market, a small-diameter tool was required. Helios delivered a carbide hob with arbor tooling in under 4 weeks, enabling Gear Master to exceed their customer’s expectations. In addition to simply installing machine tools, Helios defines customer success through ongoing technical support with applications engineering, cutting tools, abrasive tools, and industry training. “This wholistic approach from a machine’s install throughout its entire life ensures manufacturers like Gear Master can compete at their top level every day of the week,” said Jason Spitzer, regional sales manager for Helios Gear Products.
A 1.95 module, 19-tooth, 32-degree helical gear needs to be cut on a long-shaft part for an Olympic transportation vehicle. Gear Master was challenged by losing 18% of their production due to quality issues from chatter and lead error. The job shop was also constrained by the application’s target cycle time that maxed out the incumbent CNC hobbing platform, forcing the application to use an aggressive feed rate.
By moving the application to the Hera 90-W, Gear Master boosted its arsenal to overcome the application’s challenges: The same workholding strategy is used, but the new machine inherently removes chatter and improves lead error by offering a more rigid platform. Furthermore, the new machine offers hobbing speeds up to 6,000 rpm, which Gear Master uses to optimize the application by increasing speed and decreasing feed. Consequently, today the parts meet quality with a minimized fallout rate, thus greatly saving the job shop on scrap parts.
“Our operators are very pleased with the ease of programming on the machine and with the high repeatability of the machine,” said Lon Parker, operations manager for Gear Master. Together, Helios and Gear Master have forged a relationship for versatile horizontal gear manufacturing success. Helios equips the job shop with globally leading technology, fast deliveries, low prices, and domestic support. This combination empowers Gear Master to be an industry leader and more competitively serve its customers.
New CNC Gear Deburring
“Gear manufacturers need a new level of gear chamfer-deburring that offers quick and easy setups with repeatable high quality,” said Adam Gimpert, president of Helios Gear Products. To meet this demand, Helios announces new CNC advances to its line of Tecnomacchine chamfer-deburring machine tools. These CNC improvements offer manufacturers a machine platform with maximum flexibility for a high mix of part sizes and types including spur and helical gears, bevel gears, bore- and shaft-type parts, and others. These abilities are driven by a new CNC system that programmatically controls all factors for the chamfer-deburring process. This equips manufactures with a process that is easy to set-up and change-over for reliable and consistent quality.
Several factors impact successful chamfer-deburring with abrasive wheels and carbide end mills. These include the tool position (radial, axial, tangential, and inclination), tool pressure, tool rotation speed, tool rotation direction, workpiece rotation direction, and workpiece rotation speed. Traditional machine tool deburring often requires manually setting several if not all these items. Today, Helios offers its gear chamfer-deburring machine tools with friendly dialog programming of all these items. This allows a setup technician to store a complete application to later be recalled by the CNC with just a few software steps. Additionally, tool spindles can be configured with brushing units for CNC brushing within the same chamfer-deburring cycle.
As one example, manufacturers use the Helios TM 250-CNC machine for profitable gear chamfer-deburring. This machine features a rotating table with two stations: one for loading/unloading parts by hand or integrated robot; the second for chamfer-deburring and brushing of the workpiece. This feature minimizes machine idle team and drastically improves productivity of the solution. Moreover, the machine implements a complete CNC system for the abovementioned abilities: quick and easy changeovers from saved setups of all tool and work positions and parameters. Changeovers can be accomplished in just a few minutes rather than the traditional 30-45 minutes.
For productive gear chamfer-deburring, the new series of Tecnomacchine equipment from Helios Gear Products offers manufacturers an ideal machining solution. With complete CNC functionality, these machines minimize changeover time, maximize repeatable quality, are easily programmed, and minimize idle time. Consequently, gear manufacturers can achieve top levels of productivity from their chamfer-deburring operations.
About Helios Gear Products, LLC
Helios Gear Products, LLC specializes in the parallel axis gear industry and offers hobbing machines with optional automatic loading systems, worm and thread milling machines, gear inspection equipment, deburring and chamfering machines, consumable tools (including hobs, gear grinding and honing wheels), hob and shaper cutter sharpening machines, and expert services for hob sharpening and part inspection. Helios products are used worldwide, and our experience gives us the edge in contributing to the productivity and efficiency of our customers. Helios Gear Products, LLC services the North American market for YG Tech, Monnier + Zahner / Lambert−Wahli, Tecnomacchine, and Tyrolit−MIRA. Helios also offers cooperative sales and service with Kapp Technologies and Penta Gear Metrology.
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